Jaden McDaniels still seems like a blank canvas, and looms as Minnesota's swing factor. He snatches some of the league's cleanest live-dribble steals. Kyle Anderson weaponizes his slowness defenders stumble ahead of his elongated moves, allowing Slow-Mo to saunter through creases. We might see glimpses of last season's blitzing defense as a surprise adjustment. On some nights, the Wolves might flip-flop matchups - slotting Towns onto centers, and stashing Gobert elsewhere so he can act as roving shot-blocker.
#LA LAKERS SILVER SCREEN AND ROLL HOW TO#
One of the league's keenest offensive tinkerers - Chris Finch - must figure out how to mesh Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert in an unusual double-center look that has to work given the Wolves traded everything short of the old Metrodome baggie for Gobert. He flies at the rim as if he thinks he can dunk through humans - that they will disintegrate beneath him. They have one blockbuster young star in Anthony Edwards, fast becoming a three-level scorer as his confidence soars on pull-ups and step-backs.Įdwards wants to dunk people into oblivion - the bigger, the better. The Wolves ranked first in pace and second in scoring efficiency after Jan.
Lonnie Walker IV has untapped upside, and he's going to careen into 1-on-4 attacks that will aggravate James. They even have faux belt loops! Powder blue is always welcome. Thumbs up to these white throwbacks - replicas of the jerseys the team wore in their first-ever game, per league officials. Will James engage pout mode once he breaks the scoring record if the Lakers are toast? James achieved peak eye-rolling sulkiness ahead of the 2018 trade deadline, when he realized the Cavs were dead barring a roster shake-up. Are Beverley and Westbrook really friends? Like, really? Or will latent tension boil over? Comedy can become pathos, and we reached that point with Westbrook last season when the Sacramento Kings' blared "Cold as Ice!" on every bonked jumper and layup. They scored this high only because of their art - including the league's prettiest court - and the comedy category. You can't play Westbrook, LeBron, Anthony Davis, and a traditional center - even one with decent range like Thomas Bryant or Damian Jones. (Darvin Ham said this week he's considering starting Anthony Davis at center, and leaning there would boost L.A.'s watchability. LeBron James remains the ultimate chessmaster, but there's little reason to suspect the overall product will be much different. The Lakers played fast, but they were boring - unorganized, dispirited, lacking any cohesive identity. 2 last season, but the idea of them - How will Russell Westbrook fit? - turned out to be way more interesting than the experience.
Will Josh Green look at the rim? Can the Mavs maintain their top-10 defense? How many violations of the Theo Pinson bench decorum rule will Theo Pinson commit? 9. The navy sings against the new white-washed floor. This is my favorite piece of Mavs art in ages: Maxi Kleber and Christian Wood must be ready at all times. Last season, he even started throwing straight backward overhead passes to pick-and-pop bigs.
He understands how every up-fake, pivot, and half-spin freaks help defenders into thinking they should swarm - and which passes any slight rotation might expose. The threat of those shots unlocks Doncic's generational passing. His high-arching step-back is borderline unblockable, and he has hit 50% from floater range over the past two seasons - and a LeBron James-esque 73% at the rim last season. (He took sadistic pleasure brutalizing Patrick Beverley in the 2021 playoffs.) Send help, and he picks you apart.Įven against like-sized defenders and traditional coverages, Doncic is a three-steps-ahead genius burrowing inside. Switch, and he mashes them in the post with smirking cruelty. He's at his most predatory dragging smaller defenders into pick-and-rolls. He can make all the passes blindfolded.ĭoncic's size and comfort in the middle of the paint - the dead zone for some ball handlers - open up endless possibilities. The typical spread pick-and-roll pairs ball handler and rim-runner Doncic can do that with any of Dallas' bigs. The Mavs' offense is one-dimensional - Luka Doncic walks ball up, runs two-man game - but that dimension contains multitudes.
That is the smile of someone who knows he has you. 30-11 on Tuesday, and you can read about the rankings formula there. Here we go: The top 10 in our 2022-2023 League Pass Rankings! We revealed Nos.
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